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ENERGY CRISIS

Madrid, Paris, Lisbon push ahead with hydrogen pipeline

Spain, France and Portugal on Friday unveil details of their ambitious plan for an underwater pipeline to bring green hydrogen from the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of Europe.

Published: 9 December 2022 12:08 CET
Madrid, Paris, Lisbon push ahead with hydrogen pipeline
(From L) Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and France's President Emmanuel Macron pose for a photo prior to holding a meeting to discuss the H2Med underwater hydrogen pipeline. Photo: Ludovic MARIN / AFP

An ambitious underwater pipeline to bring green hydrogen from the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of Europe will be “completed by 2030”, French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, French President Emmanuel Macron and Portuguese premier Antonio Costa were to formally sign off on the plans in the presence of EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen on the sidelines of a regional EU summit in southern Spain.

They were expected to outline both a roadmap and timeline for completing the so-called H2Med project which they are hoping will be partially covered by European funds.

READ ALSO – Barcelona-Marseille pipeline: an ambitious but risky project

The pipeline project comes as Europe struggles to reduce its dependence on Russian energy following its February invasion of Ukraine.

Also known as BarMar for its planned route connecting Barcelona and Marseille, the submarine pipeline will carry green hydrogen, which is made from water via electrolysis in a process using renewable energy.

It will ultimately facilitate the EU’s transition to green energy, French and Spanish government officials say.

Energy ministers from all three countries will also be at the gathering in the southern city of Alicante to offer their outlook on “the feasibility of the infrastructure project, its funding and an initial timeline” for its
construction, sources in Macron’s office said.

Announced at an EU summit in October, the pipeline offers an alternative to the defunct 2003 MidCat pipeline project which would have carried gas across the Pyrenees from Spain to France.

It was abandoned in 2019 over profitability issues and objections from Paris and environmentalists.

H2Med: a €2-billion project

H2Med aims to boost the decarbonisation of European industry, giving it large-scale access to clean energy from Spain and Portugal which are hoping to become world leaders in green hydrogen thanks to their numerous wind and solar power farms.

Initially, the idea was for the pipeline to carry gas from the Iberian peninsula to central Europe, given Spain and Portugal’s huge capacity for turning liquefied natural gas (LNG) that arrives in tankers back into gas form.

But that idea has been dropped with the pipeline only slated to carry green hydrogen, Spanish and French sources said, in a move expected to free up European funding.

France said H2Med could come online in 2030 with Spain offering slightly earlier estimates, with the vast project carrying an estimated price tag of €2 billion. 

The three leaders will meet just before the start of the EuroMed 9 summit, at which they will be joined by six other southern European countries: Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Slovenia.

Spain’s Sánchez had planned to hold bilateral talks with Italy’s new far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni but she pulled out due to illness early on Friday, Rome said.

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PROPERTY

Too hot or too cold: Spain’s homes struggle to keep comfortable temperatures

Amid rising temperatures and more extreme weather, new data reveals that a significant proportion of Spaniards are struggling to keep their homes at comfortable temperatures during the winter and summer months.

Published: 14 May 2024 09:51 CEST
Too hot or too cold: Spain's homes struggle to keep comfortable temperatures

Spaniards are increasingly finding it difficult to keep their houses at comfortable temperatures during the summers and winters, and the problem has grown markedly over the last decade.

This follows new data released from Living Conditions Survey recently published by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), which revealed that over a quarter of families in Spain struggle to heat their homes sufficiently in winter and that a third are too hot in summer.

The percentage of households reporting difficulties in keeping their homes at a comfortable temperature has increased by almost ten percent overall in the last decade.

READ ALSO: Why are Spanish homes so cold?

In the colder months, the proportion that say they can’t keep their property sufficiently warm during winter has grown from 17.9 percent in 2012 to 27.5 percent in 2023.

The summer heat poses an even greater problem for Spaniards. The percentage of households struggling to keep their homes cool enough during the summer months has risen from a quarter (24.8 percent) to over a third (33.6).

READ ALSO: Ten ways to protect your Spanish property against the summer heat

This comes as Spain faces record breaking temperatures year round and rising energy costs. According to Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), 2023 was the third hottest summer since records began, surpassed only by 2022 and 2003.

In summer 2023 alone, four official heat waves were recorded, lasting a total of 24 days.

READ ALSO: How the right orientation of your Spanish home can save you hundreds on energy bills

However, though rising temperatures clearly play a role, so too does geography, income, and poor energy efficiency caused by poor insulation.

Murcia is the region where the highest proportion of households have problems keeping their homes cool in the summer, with almost half of families polled saying they are in this situation (46.6 percent). Murcia was followed by Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia, Aragón and Extremadura, where the figure is 36 percent.

At the other extreme, in the cooler, northern regions of Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia, it is not even 20 percent.

Despite that, it is also the southern regions that struggle the most with keeping their houses warm enough during the winter. Murcia is once again the region where the highest percentage of families are unable to keep their homes at an adequate temperature over the colder months.

40.1 percent of Murcianos say they find it difficult to heat their homes over winter. In Andalusia and Extremadura the figure is almost 35 percent, the other two regions that top the list, meaning the three most southern regions of Spain came out on top.

In contrast, in Navarre, Castilla y León​​, and the Basque Country, less than a fifth (20 percent) of households report problems maintaining a sufficiently warm temperature at home during winter.

Household income also factors into this problem. INE data shows that the proportion of households struggling to maintain an adequate temperature in their homes increases as average income decreases. Among families with the lowest income levels, 38.9 percent say that they are cold in winter and 41.3 percent say that they are too hot in summer.

Of the regions that struggle to keep their homes warm or cool enough, Murcia, Andalusia and Extremadura all have some of the lowest median per capita incomes in the whole country, along with some of the highest levels of poverty.

Equally, the parts of the country where this seems to be less of a problem, such as the Basque Country, Galicia, and Navarre, are some of the wealthiest regions of Spain.

Housing quality and insulation also contribute to poor energy efficiency, which in turn makes temperature control more difficult. Even among households with high incomes, 15 percent say that they are unable to heat their property sufficiently in winter and 24.8 percent struggle to keep it cool enough in summer.

According to INE data, a quarter (25.1 percent) of Spanish households have not made any improvements to their thermal insulation or heating system in the last year, significantly more than the 14.1 percent who have been able to make changes.

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